Open letter to the President

Mr. President it has become very clear that our country is not stable in many ways than one. Even without the benefit of any opinion poll, I am deeply convinced that many Zambians will agree with me on this. I am sure Mr. President that many Zambians are concerned but do not have a way and means of expressing themselves. There is no shared understanding of what exactly has gone wrong with our beautiful land. It is very difficult Sir to know whether our country is moving forward, backwards or sideways.

So today Mr. President, I just want to make a single appeal to you as the father of our nation, with love and in outright good faith, in humility and in the interest of our nation.

Mr President, first of all I am for the idea that you must be facing a lot of challenges. But I assure you Sir that you are not alone as many Zambians are facing even bigger challenges. Many people who have their hopes on your stewardship Sir are almost lost and feeling abandoned in a wildernesses we have created for ourselves as a nation. Sir we have not helped you enough as citizens. Those who support you Sir agree and support you whenever you make a decision. Good or Bad. When you made a GOOD decision to increase electricity tariffs and make them cost effective, they supported and when you made a WRONG decision to reverse such a good decision, again they supported you. The minister of education announced the scrapping off of meal allowances for the students and your people supported it and when that was reversed they supported.

Mr. President I am almost sure that even you yourself must be getting surprised some times when those that support you agree with you on certain decisions. It must be very confusing for a leader in your position Sir to tell if your people are supporting you on merit or simply to please you and keep their positions. Mr. President I feel for you and I know this is not an easy feeling if at all you feel confused sometimes.

In the past few weeks Sir, we have experienced unexplained shortage of fuel and mealie meal. I will not remind you about the shortage of electricity that we have been experiencing for some time now and I know we are now used and adjusted ourselves. Mr. President our currency is still performing very bad against international currencies. Our country is spending more than what we are making, as a result we have resorted to excessive borrowing. Violence and intimidation among political party cadres is the order of the day. Our civil servants do not have a pay day anymore as it used to be sometime back.

The war on corruption is almost lost. Cadres from both the opposition and ruling party have taken over the show and they do whatever they feel like doing including committing crimes in the presence of the police. Sir our police force has become toothless and can’t be professional anymore due to paranoia.

It will however, be unfair Sir to blame you for all the challenges we are facing as a nation as most of them your government inherited them from those that were there before you.

Unfortunately Sir we can only manage to point a finger at you when things are falling apart. As you put it last time when you addressed us through our friends from the media Sir, the back stops at you and the responsibility is really yours. The amended constitution Mr. President states among other things that a citizen of this country has the right to a decent meal. But most of our people are going without a decent meal with some of them not having shelter, thereby spending nights in the cold. Being a lawyer Sir am sure you know that this is a violation of human rights according to the very constitution your able office made law.

Sir it is becoming very difficult for us to explain to our friends from the other African country when they ask us about what has happened with the country they knew as the mother of peace and order in Africa. They see disturbing pictures of those that are active in politics being assaulted. They hear sad stories of political intimidations and tribal talk.

Sir many Zambians especially those close to you can’t say and will never say what I am saying because they are afraid, while others have to protect their jobs. It is a case of seeing which side of the bread is buttered. Mr President, Zambians are no longer at ease because they know they deserve better than this.

Just this week Sir you swore in judges for the Constitutional Court and the prayer of the Zambian people is that those you have appointed will do their work professionally and help restore order. Mr. President you just handed over the housing units to Zambia police and we must acknowledge the efforts. I want to believe Mr President that you are equal to the task.

Mr. President as we start our Easter, celebrating the life of our Load Jesus, I hope that you will choose to continue serving one master. You cannot serve two masters at the same time and succeed. That is a key doctrine of the Christian faith that I know you profess Sir. It is a key element of virtually all faiths and even the law of nature. It has to be one master at a time. Either you are serving the Zambia people or serving your personal friends, relations and interests. It can’t be both. And as far as I know you Sir, I can judge that you are committed to serving the Zambian people as evidenced by your leadership.

I must mention Mr President, that your government is doing very well on infrastructure development and I commend you on that.

Mr. President I finally want to appeal to you to ensure that the country is united before the next general elections. Our political cadres don’t need to crush every time they meet. Don’t allow this to happen when you are still the father of our nation. I know you can put a stop to this lawlessness Mr. President. You are EQUAL to the TASK. I ask that you embrace a bipartisan approach to our problems as a nation. Our Job Mr. President is to ensure that we give you enough support as you do your best in moving our country from the pits of poverty.

I know you have a mammoth task Sir and a busy schedule but I hope this open letter will somehow reach you or those close to you. Please use the positive spectacles to read and see through my reasoning.

Mr President, we can’t run to nowhere. We are all here to help. Together we can redeem our nation.

7 Responses to Open letter to the President

Well said Mr kapoma but if you were an advisor to the president would you have said this? I Doubt it even those people who are close to the head of state fear to tell him the truth for fear of loosing their jobs

I wished the President could read this open letter not necessarily to get the advice being advanced in it but to stimulate his think on two fronts that I think are critical to keep this country afloat .

1. For the President to uphold the consititution for which he is the custodian on behalf of the Zambian people. In this document there are important clauses and protocals that should be adhered to like the ten commandments in the bible. These clauses all hinge on human Rights and/or Freedoms. For instance the human rights protocals that should not be infringed upon either by the President or state apparatus include:1) Rights to free association 2) Rights to assemble freely as well as free movement 3) Rights to speak freely without indimidation or fear from anyone or insitution 4) Rights to balanced diet and affordable food, education, clean and health
environment that include decent housing,
schooling and clean drinking water.

2) Peace and stability
We are all alive to the fact that the absence of war does not necessarily entail the presences of peace and stability.

Having said the above, I my considered opinion is that President Lungu has not upheld the consititution of Zambia to which he was entrusted with. Examples are abound to prove this point. Most of these are highlighted in the lead article . For expidience I will provide one which constitutional experts can give guidance . The new constitution is silent on the position of deputy ministers and district commissioners . One wonders why the two formerly constitutional offices are allowed to exist. The President to give uus guidance on this matter because the office bearers are busy signing government documents which might be illegal . Taxpayers are forking out huge sums of money to sustain these individuals as ministers when the Presidentcould simply tell the elected deputy ministers to revert to being MPs.

This country is devoid of peace and stability . How many opposition supporters and journalists have had the heads and faces hacked with pandas by suspected ruling party cadres under the President’s and police watch. This is simple issue to deal with . The President jus needs to give the IG an instruction to stop the violence as he always does to flush out opposition leaders whey tour the country side

I wish Mr president would read this important en eye opening massage,very educative and motivated,its a pit those surrounding him are just mare cadars who could not even like this open latter be seen to him,the latter is the exact of what our president is going through.fallow zambian let’s not be cheated,our president lungu was ashared in the office at wrong time,things where just too had for any president no wonder even this time no opposition is promising anything this time coz deep down their heart they know that they cannot do anything,that’s why no one is coming out to say as HH I will control dollar all we hear is stop violence or GBM detained.